Review: UNDFIND One Bag Photography Set

UNDFIND (pronounced “undefined”) is a fresh new company looking to change the way we think about our camera bags. Instead of purchasing purpose built bags for each task, UNDFIND has created a hybrid pack that can be transformed and customized to fit whatever scenario you throw at it. It’s called the “One Bag”, and I had the opportunity to play around with it for a few weeks to see if it’s really capable of becoming my one bag.

Features & Design

The One Bag that I was sent is the Photography Set, which includes an insert purpose-built for encasing your photography gear that fits like a glove into the main compartment of the bag, and is held into place with strong and awfully clever velcro straps along the edges. Once the insert is installed in the bag, you wouldn’t have even the slightest idea that it was an insert, you would simply think it was built into the bag. The fit is excellent and it fills out the compartment perfectly. See the video below for a demonstration of how this works.

On the front and back of the bag, you have two large slots for a laptop (UNDFIND claims up to 15″, but my 13″ MacBook Air was tight enough, I wouldn’t go much larger), an iPad, and any other small accessory (iPhone, battery charger, etc). There are also slots for pens, memory cards, etc. Where it starts to get interesting though is the large flap cover for the bag. This flap is completely customizable. UNDFIND sells 14 different designs and materials for this cover, and you can change it yourself quickly and easily using the same unique double-sided velcro system that holds in the photo insert. I was sent three cover choices with my review unit, and found them all to be of high quality, unique designs, and lots of fun to switch in and out daily. Having that kind of flexibility makes this bag usable in numerous situations–the black leather looks classy enough for a business meeting, where the checkerboard pattern mixes things up for going out on the town. From a style perspective, it’s great to be able to change things up so easily.

In Use

When I started to load my gear into this bag, the first thing I noticed was that my camera (Olympus OM-D E-M5) wouldn’t fit with a lens attached. This is a relatively skinny bag, so there isn’t enough depth to accommodate my OM-D sideways with a lens. I was able to fit my E-P1 with a lens attached (due to the lack of protruding EVF hump on top), but having to take the lens off of my OM-D every time I want to stow it away is pretty upsetting. Not to mention that the OM-D is a pretty small camera, I can only imagine this problem is significantly worse with even a smaller cropped sensor DSLR. I would’ve much preferred the bag to be slightly bulkier but accommodate my camera properly without having to dismount the lens.

That said, you can actually fit quite a bit more in this bag than I had initially thought. I fit my entire OM-D system (body, 3 lenses, flash), my iPad 3, and my 13″ MacBook Air in the bag without any problem at all. It does tend to get heavy though, as even the empty bag itself weighs in at a pretty hefty 2.98 lbs. The weight, I believe, stems from the bag being particularly solidly constructed out of an incredibly dense neoprene-type material, and the photo insert out of a dense closed-cell foam rubber. The result is a heavy bag, but one that you won’t have to worry about protecting your expensive gear well. This bag could take a drop or a tumble and I’m certain your gear would survive without any issue.

Fortunately, the weight of this bag is comfortably supported with the excellent included shoulder strap. It, too, is made of a neoprene material, which is thick and stretchy, and even includes some “massaging” beads on the inside of the strap. It’s wide enough to evenly distribute the weight, and works really well with this bag. In fact, I may end up using this strap with all my bags in the future. It’s really great.

Conclusion

I like the UNDFIND One Bag, and I particularly like that there’s a bag maker thinking outside of the box when it comes to lugging around our gadgets. I’m always excited when I see a camera bag that doesn’t look like a typical camera bag, and this one certainly breaks the mold. While spacious, the size isn’t necessarily as useful as it may seem, and you will quickly find that you’ll be disassembling things for travel a bit more than you’d like. That being said, it’s a bag meant to hold gadgets, and that it does well, accommodating both my MacBook Air and my iPad in addition to my camera gear. At $130, it’s a tough sell for anyone with a camera system much bigger than m4/3rds. If you have a smaller camera system though, and you’re looking for a bag to lug around your gadgets with your camera gear, check out the UNDFIND One Bag.

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